Nolte: Box Office Slump Continues with Worst Easter Weekend in over a Decade

This year’s massive box office slump took another hit when Easter delivered the worst weekend in “well over a decade,” Deadline reports.

New Line’s $9 million horror entry, The Curse of La Llorona, captured the top spot with $26.5 million; it even over-performed. But it was still not enough to pull the weekend out of its death spiral, or the overall box office year out of its dive.

Thus far, the 2019 domestic box office is down 16.3 percent compared to last year, down 17.3 percent compared to 2017, down 12.3, 6.7, and 2.9 percent compared to 2016, 2015, and 2014, respectively.

In other words, we are nearly four full months into the year and the box office is as bad as its been in at least five years.

The primary reason you are not reading much about this, even here at Breitbart, is because everyone continues to assume something’s going to hit big and end the slump. But then…

Dumbotanked and Alita: Battle Angel tanked and Pet Sematary tanked and The LEGO Movie: Part 2 tanked and Hellboy tanked, The Kid Who Would Be King tanked, and Happy Death Day 2 U tanked…

We are nearly four months into the year and only eight films have passed the $100 million mark, only three have passed $150 million, and ONE has passed $175 million.

We are nearly four months into the year and there have only been two breakout hits: Captain Marvel ($400 million) and the horror film Us ($170 million).

Thus far, 2019 has been a five-alarm disaster.

Nevertheless, no one is panicking yet, nor should they… Summer is on the horizon and it begins this coming weekend with what will almost certainly be the biggest movie of the year and one of the biggest of all-time: Avengers: Endgame.

Not only is Endgame the conclusion to Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War, which grossed an incredible $679 million domestic last year, it is the conclusion of a 20 movie story arc that began a decade ago in 2008 with Iron Man; a story that has captured moviegoers’ attention unlike any in history and it will now, in many ways, come to an end — including, we have been led to believe, the exit-death of several iconic characters.

This is as “must see” as movies get… but will it be enough to pull 2019 out of a dive?

On its own, probably not, and for four whole weeks after Endgame’s April 26 release there is no sure thing coming to a theater near you. John Wick: Chapter 3 lands on May 17 and everyone loves John Wick, but neither of its predecessors passed the $100 million domestic mark.

Nope, the only sure thing is Disney’s live-action remake of Aladdin, which stars Will Smith as Genie. But that doesn’t arrive until May 24 … and is it a sure thing?

After the dismal performance of Tim Burton’s live-action Dumbo remake and the under-performance of last year’s Mary Poppins Returns, I wouldn’t be so sure.

May closes with Godzilla: King of the Monsters (this franchise has yet to take off as expected) and the hope that the Elton John biopic Rocketman can do Bohemian Rhapsody business.

June delivers the X-Men entry Dark Phoenix (iffy) and The Secret Life of Pets 2 (gunna make a fortune), a Will Smith-less Men In Black I wouldn’t bank on, and that sorry-looking Shaft remake-sequel-reboot-reimagining.

Toy Story 4 will break the bank.

The rest of the summer brings another Spider-Man entry, another one of Disney’s live-action remakes (Lion King), a Fast & Furious spin-off, and, well, then that’s kind of it… No Jurassic Park, no Mission: Impossible, no James Bond, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Jumanji, Aquaman, It, or Dunkirk.